We met on Hinge in January of 2022. I always said I would wait until I was 30 to get on any dating apps. After much pestering and extensive research, I finally let my sister, Lauren, sign me up for Hinge for the new year (though I was still two years shy of 30). 10 days later, on January 11, Conner messaged me about one of my pictures (commenting on how cute my dog Winnie is) and I was immediately intrigued by him. We went on our first date to The Commons in Greenville on January 22. We had a three hour fist date and continued to spend a lot of time together over the next few weeks. On February 6, Conner asked me to be his girlfriend and we dated for two years until he proposed on April 27, 2024!

My sister, Lauren, and her husband, Brendan, just built a house in Port Saint Joe, Florida. We planned to go down for the weekend to celebrate mine and my mom's birthdays the weekend of April 26-28. I didn't think that Conner would propose on this particular weekend because I had been telling him that he needed to talk to my sister first to get all of the details of a proposal (ring size, ring type, etc.). I didn't think he had talked to her yet and thought it would be another couple of months before he popped the question. Little did I know, but Conner talked to my sister when we went to visit them in Colorado over my spring break back in March. A few days after, Lauren had asked me all kinds of fun questions of any and everything that I would ever want in a proposal and I just thought it was a fun game for whenever he finally talked to her in the future.

Fast forward to the weekend of April 26 down in Florida. Conner, myself, and my mom drove down to Port Saint Joe on Friday and arrived very late. The next morning, the plan was for everyone to go to brunch to celebrate mine and my mom's birthdays. My nieces were excited to dress up and asked me to help them get ready for the day. While I was distracted, the plan was set in motion to throw me off for the proposal. My oldest niece, Harper, came upstairs and told me that her dad called the brunch place and it was going to be a 90 minute wait so we weren't going to go anymore. Lauren then came up and told me that she and Brendan were going to go grab donuts for everyone. I didn't think anything of this and continued to get ready. After Lauren and Brendan left, we were sitting on the couch and a few minutes later, I got a text from Lauren that said the donut place was out of donuts (this happens often in the small town of Port Saint Joe) and she and her husband were going to run to the hardware store to grab something to fix a rail. She asked if we could run to a donut shop 15 minutes away, but also to pop out by the ocean at Salinas Park to see how the beach was looking (if it was somewhere we wanted to go to the beach that day). I looked at Conner and said, "This is a lot!" but he quickly reassured me that we could do it with no problem.

We got in the car and I asked Conner if he wanted to go to the beach or the donut shop first. He quickly replied the beach and we began to drive. When we arrived at the beach access, Conner went back to the car to "grab his phone" aka the ring box from under the seat and we walked out onto the beach. I continued to walk towards the water when Conner turned me around and told me that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He got down on one knee to which I began to scream and jump up and down and say, "YES!"

After a few minutes of excitement, I turned around to see that Lauren and Brendan were hiding behind a dune taking a video and pictures that we will treasure forever.

We are so thankful for this special weekend in Port Saint Joe and are so excited that the Lord has brought us together to be husband and wife. We are so excited for what our life together will bring!